For the first time in more than a decade, the World Press Photo Exhibition is being shown in Durban. The foremost annual photojournalism exhibition was opened this week and will remain at the Durban Art Gallery until the end of the month. We asked David Larsen to tell us the significance of the exhibition and to highlight what he views as some of the images forming part of the exhibition that have a particular impact

During the eManzimtoti flood on Tuesday, October 10, I happened to be up the North Coast in Richards Bay where we could see blue sky.

The first I heard about the flood was through WhatsApp. People were posting photographs and videos from the scene. Many of us were witnessing the power of social media and citizen journalism.

I wonder, however, if you were one of those who also received a message with a picture that a bridge was about to collapse. I am sure you discovered later that the message was a hoax. I knew it was a hoax because I had just driven under that bridge.

For me this illustrates the benefit and challenge we face in terms of social media. What news source is reliable and how do we know? Seeing is certainly not believing, anymore.

Which brings me to why we partnered with World Press Photo to bring the World Press Photo Exhibition 2017 to KwaZulu-Natal. The exhibition is made up of the award-winning photographs from the World Press Photo Contest, which 5 034 professional photographers from 126 countries entered 80 408 photographs that were adjudicated by specialist juries from many of the world’s leading publications. The contest is a massive undertaking and the not-for-profit World Press Photo Foundation is able to achieve this every year because it receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon. To win a World Press Photo award is like winning an Oscar.

The winning pictures become part of an exhibition that travels to

100 cities in 45 countries and is seen by more than four million people. The most valuable part of the competition and exhibition is what it represents in terms of honouring those who are trustworthy witnesses of the unfolding events of history.

To enter the competition, you have to be a professional photographer and you have to agree to the ethics of photojournalism. The ethics are there to uphold the trust of the public that the pictures they are seeing are a faithful witness to the real events of history. That is the job of a photojournalist, to be where you and I cannot be and to faithfully relay to us the reality of what happened. Many do this job at great risk to their own lives. When they are doing their job correctly, photojournalists together with picture editors present verifiable facts of events.

Their job is critical for society’s understanding of the world around us. The right decisions can be made by decision makers only if they have information that accurately reflects reality. This is critical for the maintenance of democracy.

That there is a global competition that honours the role that photojournalists play is critical for upholding the vital role that a free and accountable press plays in our understanding of the world around us.

Viewing the World Press Photo Exhibition is like taking a tour of the biggest news stories of the year. We can do so in the assurance that what we are seeing is the work of reliable witnesses who were on the scene revealing to us what really happened.

In the captions, I discuss four

pictures that have particular power in highlighting the reality of the world in which we live.

l Larsen is managing director: Africa Media Online. Based in KwaZulu-Natal, Africa Media Online partnered with the World Press Photo Foundation to bring the exhibition to the province.

Brent Stirton, Getty Images Reportage for National Geographic

Nature, First Prize. Title: Rhino Wars

A black rhino, poached for its horn, is found dead at Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. It is suspected that the killers came from a community about 5km away, entering the park illegally, shooting the rhino at a waterhole with a high-powered, silenced hunting rifle. Demand in Asia for rhino horn – traditionally valued for its medicinal properties – is rising steeply. This puts growing pressure on a species threatened with extinction. In 2007, South Africa, home to 70% of the world’s rhinos, reported losing just 13 to poachers; by 2015 that had risen to 1 175. Unlike elephant tusks, rhino horn grows back when cut properly. Rhino rancher John Hume is among those trying to end the ban on trading in rhino horn, and to farm rhinos commercially, a move opposed by conservationists, who say a legal trade could doom rhinos.

Stirton was the only African photographer to win an award in the competition. He seems to have used portrait techniques to capture the incredible brutality of the scene. One is left incensed that this should be happening on our doorstep. It is an image that can move the public to action.

Francesco Comello

Daily Life; Third Prize. Title: Isle Of Salvation

Maria and Alexandra help harvest potatoes. They have become inseparable friends on the Isle of Salvation, a reclusive spiritual and educational community on the busy road between Moscow and Yaroslavl in Russia. It was founded in the 1990s by an orthodox priest, and initially comprised about 30 people, dedicated to living a holy life. The community looks after children with family or social problems. About 300 boys and girls are cared for. There is no TV, no internet and no money in circulation – all are deemed society’s evils. The focus is on God and fatherland, and on spiritual and physical development. People work the land, study and dance.

While many stories that win awards in the World Press Photo competition highlight issues in society that need change, there are good news stories that also win. This image is part of a beautiful photo story shot in black and white by Italian photographer Francesco Cornello. He spent time with The Isle of Salvation. Here he has captured the tenderness of friendship between two women. All his pictures capture moments that give us a sense of life and relationships in this community. The photographer is presenting this unusual community to us in a compassionate, non-judgemental way that makes us stop and take notice.

Jonathan Bachman, Reuters

Contemporary Issues – First Prize, Singles. Title: Taking A Stand In Baton Rouge

Iesha Evans, 27, stands her ground at a rally against police violence against black men, outside the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana, US, on July 9. Evans had travelled to Baton Rouge to protest against the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot at close range while being held to the ground by two white police officers on July 5. The fatal shooting of Sterling came at a time of heightened tension in the US over the deaths of black men at the hands of the police. Data collected by The Counted, an initiative set up by The Guardian to record such fatalities, found that last year black males aged 15 to 34 were nine times more likely than other people to be killed.

What is so powerful about the image, is that here is a woman, seemingly defenceless, even fragile, yet so serene in the face of force. It is disarming. She seems to have inner strength. It brings to mind the image of the young person standing before the tanks at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. What Evans’s action and Bachman’s picture do for us is to capture in a single moment the issue that Evans was trying to highlight, the police brutality, particularly against African-American men.

Laurent Van der Stockt, Getty Images

Reportage for Le Monde

General News – First Prize, Singles; Title: Offensive On Mosul

A girl stands outside as members of a counter-terrorism battalion of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) search homes in Gogjali, an eastern suburb of Mosul, Iraq, during an offensive to liberate the city. Mosul was the last major stronghold of the Islamic State group in Iraq. ISOF entered Gogjali in October last year and began looking for Islamic State members, equipment and evidence. Gogjali was retaken in early November, and most of Eastern Mosul by the end of January this year.

When I look at this image, I see terror in the girl’s face. French photographer Laurent van der Stockt has captured vulnerability and trauma. This is contrasted with the apparently nonchalant look on what we assume to be her brother’s face. The picture intrigues us and draws us in to ask questions about what is going on here. What is happening is that Iraqi special operations forces are searching in their home for Islamic State operatives. This is in Mosul, Iraq, and I believe what we are seeing on the girl’s face is perhaps years of trauma of living in a war zone. This is the kind of image that moves decision makers and the public to action which is what great photojournalism often does.

The Independent on Saturday

David Larsen

Great shot! World Press Photo Exhibition comes to Durban